FOF #1204 – The Russian Gay Bear Goes Grrr

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Money is no object when it comes to stopping gay rights in Russia. Even though the Russian constitution guarantees the right to assembly, Moscow’s mayor has spent a lot of resources trying to stop the city’s annual Gay Pride Parade.

How did the Russian gays outwit the mayor? By setting up a smart mob! Listen to today’s show as activist Andy Thayer reveals the fascinating details on how they did it.

I think it will take quite some time till Russia will be more LGBT friendly. Right now almost all Western governments who travel to Russia usually don’t talk about much about the human rights situation, not to mention the LGBT rights.

I am also disappointed the German government has almost done nothing to improve the LGBT situation in Russia although Germany has great relations to Russia. Also current chancellor Merkel speaks fluently Russian and Putin speaks fluently German. So there should not be a communication problem. But right economic issues seem to be important as Germany is the largest trading partner of Russia, former chancellor Schröder is working for Gazprom and Russia chose Germany as the key partner to modernize its industry.

Hi guys!
I just wanted to quickly address the idea mentioned in this episode regarding boycotting BP.
“Keep on driving”…. It’s not that cut and dry, unfortunately.
The St Pete times had a great article on this idea last week. It said:
“US BP stations are simply franchises owned by people who paid BP for the right to use its name. The fuel they sell may or may not come from BP. Similarly, other gas stations that you may go to in your efforts to bypass BP may sell some BP fuel.
BP is the second-largest oil company in the world, second to Shell. It has more than 9,000 stations in the United States. None are owned by BP, says Hejdi Feick, a BP spokeswoman. She said BP has suffered no significant effect on gasoline sales since the spill.
But the complex nature of the oil industry means that boycotting BP will have little effect on the oil giant, even if lots of people do it, says Akshay Rao, an economics professor at the University of Minnesota.
‘It’s like trying to hurt an elephant with a fly swatter.’
To understand why boycotting BP won’t really work, you have to understand how the oil industry works.”

Y’know, I don’t know. I don’t think anyone really knows what to do at this time, but I’d hate to see everyone passing up BP stations that may not be selling BP gas, to go to other stations that are selling BP gas.
Everyone knows what BP has done and that we need to hold them accountable, but I think right now, boycotting the US BP franchise stations may actually just work against our goal.

We all need to wait a bit longer and see what happens. It’s hard to do, I know, and believe me, here in Tampa we are all KEENLY aware of the situation, but we cannot jump the gun in this matter. It’s just too important.

It is time to act! It might be the worst ecological catastrophe in the US.

Maybe now the majority understands the solution is not drill more but to reduce our consumption of oil in different areas. Like in transportation by improving public transport and building long distance high-speed railway networks or at home by improving insulation so one need less energy for heating in the winter and air-condition in the summer. Also companies should understand not labour costs but rather transportations costs should determine their place of production.

The area of cheap oil is about to end in some years. There is still enough oil for about 30-40 years maybe but in order to get this oil large investments are necessary. Moreover the demand due to emerging countries is growing faster the than the supply. Therefore the oil price could easily go up to $150 to $200 per barrel.

There is no real respond to any Oil company unlike many other companies that have had successful boy cots (ie rock star energy drink) Crude oil is something we can not live with out every industry needs oil or has a service or good that uses oil in its creation or transport.

Beyond Petroleum has not been called British Petroleum since 2001, because they have been investing and researching Alternative energy, I think its sad this happened to a company that is in vesting in such a worth whiled field, also there is little the company can do about this spill we don’t have any technology to really stop it, until now there has not been a deep sea dill that has had this problem so no solution has been created, so I think people should stop blaming BP for its action or lack of, because there is little they can early do about this spill, it will take time to plug since it is not just the pipe but also some of the sea bed has ruptured.

there is plenty of blame to go around, AFTER the disaster has been dealt with, and it will be, BP could have its drilling permits revoked, there will be HUGE fines and maybe even legal action is the company is found to be negligent or incompetent.

Hi guys!
I recently discover the wonderful world of podcasts. Though it might seem a very tardive reflection on the subject, it change my perspective on how radio is done; have done some cultural radio broadcasting myself on my university days.
I would say that over this last week i’ve heard around 10 of your more recent … podcasts and I find them delightfull.
I find that is witty and smart but unpretentious. It’s like having a light conversation with someone you know is smart, and you can discuss serious stuff anytime. I really love the positive view on life, very unjudgemental, except when people really deserve it (like republicans in general =).
I specially appreciated the episode with Andy Thayer, and the episode with the first 50 f**gots. I think the most enjoyable part of your show is that you can actually make people want to develop an opinion. And even if I don’t always agree with yours, I think it’s easy for me to understand your perspectives. Which makes it not matters of right and wrong, but more a validation of the multiplicity of point of view.
Your show has made my metro trips and days a lot more fun. I didn’t wanted to overshadow this congratulatory message with specific comments and questions, so I will do that latter in other messages (though probably they will be a little behind on the episodes on which the reflect)
So, thanks for the great show, and keep it going guys… It’s really great what you do.

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About Marc Felion

Marc Felion is the co-host and producer of the Feast of Fun podcast. He lives in the Andersonville neighborhood of Chicago with his partner and co-host Fausto Fernós. He loves sci-fi, murder mysteries and pumping iron.